


Spider-Man is everyone's friend

by tubaplayingsheep



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Spider-Man: Homecoming, F/M, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Gen, Secret Identity, basically: what if Peter did go to the party as Spider-Man?, but not too much, going with the overall plot of homecoming and adding in some fun secret identity stuff, secret identity shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:40:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tubaplayingsheep/pseuds/tubaplayingsheep
Summary: Peter had a dilemma. On one hand, he was starting to get fed up with Flash's incessant bullying, and would love the chance to shut him up. On the other, the chance he was presented with right now had the potential to expose his secret identity. But what if he could pull it off? After all, it was Liz' party. Beautiful, perfect Liz. Maybe it could be worth the risk.In which Spider-Man does make an appearance at the party, resulting in Peter needing to work even harder to juggle his separate, but increasingly entangling lives.
Relationships: Liz Allan/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Flash Thompson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	1. Flash the Fan

_“Peter knows Spider-Man!” Peter’s blood ran cold at that as he quickly stood up, knowing he had to say something. Preferably something other than “Um, no, I – I don’t – uh”, which was what came out. Ned, the little shit he was, continued by saying they were friends, and Flash came with some stupid remark, and Peter was so sick of Flash, he wanted to set him in his place, he was tempted to blurt out the real truth just to see his face, and Ned had already ruined everything by blabbing, so why not?_

_But he stopped himself, and he went instead with Ned’s story that yes, he knew Spider-Man, through the Stark internship, they had met a couple of times, he wouldn’t exactly say they were friends, but yeah, he was cool. Flash didn’t stop at that, of course, demanding that he prove it by inviting him to Liz’ party that weekend, and then Liz invited Peter to said party, and he thought that maybe this was all okay after all._

Peter was swinging around, looking around for someone to help while still thinking about yesterday’s gym class. He still hadn’t made up his mind about the party. Logically he knew he shouldn’t risk it, but it would be nice to maybe put a damper on Flash’s bullying. And he also couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Liz apparently had a crush on him. _Him!_ Well, not Peter Parker-him, but him all the same.

“Hey! Spider-Man!” an all too familiar voice was shouting up at him, pulling him out of his daydreams. Peter turned, mid-swing, which he instantly realized was a mistake as he crashed directly into a streetlight with a comedic ‘CLANG’. Rubbing at his head he dropped down, steeling himself for the coming interaction.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry, so sorry Mr. Spider-Man, Sir!” Flash was stuttering out as he came running up to him, reminding him strangely of himself whenever he came into contact with a new Avenger.

“D-don’t worry ‘bout it,” he mumbled quickly, then, reminding himself to somewhat disguise his voice, continued in a deeper tone: “Are you in danger?”

“Oh, right! No. No, I’m not.” Flash looked a bit sheepish at that. “I just, I saw you and I’ve never seen you in person before and I’m such a huge fan and all, but you were probably on your way to something important. I’m sorry for keeping you, and for the, uh…” he gestured to the streetlight and trailed off.

This was his out. He could say that, yes, he was on his way to stop a mugging or bank robbery or something and be on his way, but for some reason he was (partially) truthful instead. “Again, don’t worry about it. I, uh… I was just swinging around and keeping an eye out for trouble, but it’s been quiet today.” He looked towards the streetlight. “And that was probably my own fault. I was a bit lost in thought, so I jumped a little when I heard you shout.” With Flash looking somewhat reassured, he continued, “I should probably keep patrolling anyway, but I can stay for a selfie, if you want?”

Flash looked like Christmas had come early. Fumbling and stuttering his thanks and agreements, he took out his phone, and stood next to Peter for the selfie. They posed, Flash pointing at Spider-Man and Peter making a peace sign, and he took the photo. Then, tentatively, he asked “Um… Spider-Man? If it’s not too much to ask, would you mind…”

Peter felt like he knew what was coming and waited patiently for Flash to get his question out. He couldn’t tell him that he knew all about his Instagram livestreams nicknamed ‘Flash Mob’, but was proven right when Flash finally managed to get up the nerve and blurted out a long stream of words at all at once.

“… I do these livestreams you see, and my followers would totally freak if I got one with you, you could probably just wave or say hi or something, I totally understand if you don’t want to, or have to go, or both don’t want to _and_ have to go, actually it’s okay, it was stupid, don’t worry about it, I’ll leave you alone now, don’t worry about it –”

Peter put his hand up to stop his rambling and, still low-key kicking himself for staying, answered “Yeah, sure, I’ll do that, it’s fine. As I said, it’s a quiet night. By the way, what’s your name?”

“My- my name? M-my name’s Flash,” he answered, somehow even more starstruck at the idea that THE Spider-Man now knew his name. He caught himself quickly, though, remembering that THE Spider-Man also agreed to show up on a livestream, and quickly set up everything, took a second to catch his breath and started streaming.

“Yo Flash Mob, this is the best day ever because LOOK WHO I MET!” He turned his camera at that to fit them both in the frame, and Peter waved and said “Hi, Flash’s friends and followers!” ending with a thumbs up. Flash was looking a bit wild with impossibly wide eyes and an even wider grin as he gushed on, “ I was just strolling along the street when this guy,” he pointed his thumb at Peter, “the one and only Spider-Man, showed up swinging from building to building! I’m not even exaggerating when I say that this is the greatest moment of my entire life!”

He kept going for a bit, sometimes talking to Peter and otherwise addressing the camera, but always talking about how amazing Spider-Man was. Peter felt lucky that he was wearing a mask, although he figured his face would be approximately the same color as his suit by now anyway. He didn’t know whether to feel comforted or mortified by the idea of Flash’s reaction should he ever learn his secret and remember this interaction.

After what felt like hours but were really only a few minutes, Flash finished up his livestream. Peter waved again and said “Bye, everyone,” noticing the viewer count had gone through the roof in those few minutes. After ending the stream, Flash turned to Peter. “Hey, thanks so much for doing that. You kinda… made my life there.”

Peter somehow turned even redder under the mask, but kept his disguised voice even as he answered, “Don’t mention it, Flash. It’s nice to do stuff like that once in a while, and it’s also nice to be appreciated. Take care, dude.” At that, he jumped, slung out a web, and started swinging away, keeping an eye out for crime and stray streetlights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is my first work!
> 
> I recently fell into an obsession with Spider-Man, and a very specific kind of fanfic that I couldn't find enough of, so I decided to write my own. Not sure where it'll go yet, but figured I'd post the first scene I put together for it - originally I just wanted to put down a few descriptions and cues for what to write, but suddenly the scene was finished and I felt kind of happy with the result, so yeah!
> 
> I hope someone else has been looking for something like this, and that it may help scratch your itch!


	2. Party Planning

He kept swinging aimlessly around for another hour before finding any crime to stop: a mugging. He landed on top of a building directly above the alley where a masked man was pointing a gun at a young woman. It was quick work – he shot a web at the gun first, making the man lose his grip, then he webbed the man against the wall, all before dropping down. He checked up on the woman, made sure she was all right, assured her that the webs would hold up, and told her she could call the police for them to come collect the mugger. Then he went on his way again.

He was a few blocks away from the would-be mugging when his phone rang. He swung up to a roof-top and sat down with his legs dangling over the city before pulling out his phone to see it was Ned.

“Hi Ned, what’s up? Did you forget I’m patrolling?”

“Dude! I saw Flash’s stream! What the fuck?”

Peter sighed. “Well, what was I supposed to have done? I do that kind of stuff sometimes, like talking to fans and taking selfies and stuff, so I couldn’t really treat him any differently, y’know?”

“But it _is_ different, though! You know him! And you don’t exactly like him!”

“But he doesn’t know that! I can’t treat the people I know differently, because they may notice, and then they’ll connect the dots, and then my secret identity is done for. I can’t risk that!”

Ned was quiet for a moment before answering. “I guess you’re right, Peter. I’m just _really_ not looking forward to school tomorrow. He’s gonna be _insufferable_.”

“Believe me, I know… I’m half blaming that on you, though. If you had just kept your mouth shut yesterday –”

“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. I still totally think you should, bring Spider-Man to Liz’ party, though. And I don’t just mean it as a way to one-up Flash, but just imagine his face if his favorite superhero shows up at a party just because _you_ invited him! That would be insane!”

“I know, Ned. I mean, it would be really cool, but I’ve gotta think it through a bit more. There’s definitely also potential for disaster, with so many people who know me and all.”

“Yeah, you’re right… I still think it’d be awesome, but I get it. I’m not gonna keep you, though, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Yeah, bye!”

Peter stared into the distance, legs still dangling. It really was a quiet night. Or maybe he kept moving into the parts of the city that were currently quiet, while the crime was happening everywhere else. He shook his head, trying not to think too much about that, sharpened his ears for any kind of unusual activity, and upon still hearing nothing, he decided to call it an early night and started swinging back home. He had some homework to get through anyway, and he had to practice his acting – a part of being a superhero he wouldn’t have thought of before, but still something he needed to nail. If he had any more run-ins with someone he knew, he had to be prepared.

He snuck into his room through the window, changed into his regular clothes and sat down by his desk. The homework was simple enough, finished in about thirty minutes. With that out of the way, he pulled out an unused notebook and paused, pen hovering above the paper for a couple of seconds. Thinking back to the attempted mugging he stopped just over an hour ago, he tried writing down what he remembered saying to the young woman he saved, and then what he imagined he could’ve said. With that as a point of reference, he started writing some go-to lines: “Are you okay, ma’am?”, “Don’t worry, sir, it’s all taken care of”, “How are you holding up?” and other sentences he had probably already said hundreds of times. He felt it helped to have some lines to fall back on in case the person in danger one day would be someone he knew.

After that, he turned a page and started writing up some potential things to say should he end up going to Liz’ party as Spider-Man. He still had his qualms about it, but if he rehearsed what to say, and came up with a good reason for Peter to disappear while Spider-Man was there, he thought he might just have a chance at passing it off.

* * *

“Hey, Penis!” Peter momentarily shut his eyes and took a breath, closing his locker as he turned around to come face to face with, well, himself. On Flash’s phone. “Never thought I’d call your bluff so soon, huh, Parker?”

His eyes widened, hoping beyond hope that he had misinterpreted what Flash just said. He couldn’t possibly know it was him, could he? When would he have figured it out? Did he already know when they met yesterday? All these thoughts and more whirring through his head, he decided to feign ignorance and tried to realign his face into a look of confusion as he answered. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“What do I _mean_?” Flash answered, incredulous. “What I _mean_ is that I have actual proof that I have met Spider-Man in person, and last I checked, you don’t. I also distinctly remember him mentioning you…” he looked up, pretending to count in his head, before looking back to Peter maliciously, “oh, right, _zero_ times!”

Peter tried to hide the relief that washed over him. _Flash didn’t know_. He let out a breath, and thought through what Flash had just said, trying to find a reasonable answer to keep up the façade Ned had created for him. He found it quickly.

“Um, why would he mention me? He wouldn’t know that you know me unless you told him, right?”

Flash paused at that, apparently realizing the hole in his story, but continued after a second: “Well, if you’re such good pals you must’ve mentioned me –”

“That was just Ned blowing it out of proportion. All I said was that I’ve met him a couple times, and that he’s really cool! I mean, clearly you met him too, wouldn’t you agree that he’s cool?” He made a decision not to address the absurdity of Flash thinking so highly of himself that he would assume Peter would talk about him to superheroes.

Flash narrowed his eyes, seemingly annoyed that his explanation wasn’t enough to expose Peter, and leaned towards him. “Don’t assume I believe you now, Penis,” he said in a low voice. “Let’s see how confident you are when I do find a way to prove that you’re lying.”

With that he turned around and strode off, leaving Peter with an increasing resolve to put Flash in his place.

* * *

“Hey,” he whispered, leaning over to Ned during math class.

“What?” came the whispered reply.

“I’m gonna do it.”

“ _Yesssss!_ ”

“ _Shhhh!_ ”

“Sorry.”

They sat in silence for a while, before Ned leant towards Peter.

“How are you gonna do it?”

“I’m thinking about it.” He looked around for eavesdroppers, but deciding not to risk it, continued: “Let’s talk it over after school. Your place?”

“All right!”

They managed to keep away from the subject for the remainder of the school day, and soon enough they found themselves in Ned’s room, discussing how to bring Spider-Man to the party without suspicion, while simultaneously rebuilding the Lego Death Star.

“I’m thinking you should stay there for a bit before changing. I mean, no one will accuse Spider-Man of being late. Have you seen a flat light gray two-by-four piece? I’m missing one here.”

Peter located the piece and handed it to Ned as he answered. “Here you go. Yeah, I agree. We gotta come up with a reason for me to disappear too, and preferably not something embarrassing like stuck on the toilet or something.”

Ned snorted at that. “I say we keep that as back-up!”

“Yeah, imagine it: ‘Hi everyone, I’m Spider-Man! Where’s Peter? He’s such a cool dude!’ ‘Oh yeah, he had a bad burrito and is currently destroying Liz’ toilet!’”

They both doubled over in laughter, the almost-finished Death Star very nearly becoming a casualty yet again.

“Yeah,” Peter hiccoughed after a while, “we’re not going with that.”

It took them ten minutes to get back on track, as every time they managed to somewhat calm down, they’d look at each other and start laughing again. Eventually they got back to it, and they came up with a few choices for the party. Peter had to shoot down Ned’s idea of Spider-Man greeting Ned – “Dude, we gotta remember that I’m only supposed to have met him a couple of times! Him knowing you would be way too suspicious.” And they also decided on the story that Peter would leave the party early – “You disappearing while Spider-Man’s there and then reappearing just as he leaves would be a dead give-away, man.” They practiced some interactions, Ned practiced looking starstruck, and then Peter got his suit on and left through the window, getting in some time to patrol before heading home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to figure out a nice chapter length. This feels way too short to me, but I haven't come much longer in the story yet, so I can't figure out how to split the text in logical places to make up the chapters. I guess this'll work itself out eventually, but longer chapters later on can probably be expected!


	3. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the party!

Well, he couldn’t say it went exactly as he had planned. At first it did; he and Ned showed up and hung out for about an hour and a half before he left again, seemingly taking an early night. That part was quite easy, considering Flash kept hassling him and he was genuinely sick of it. He had just changed into his suit when he spotted some strange lights in the distance, and he couldn’t just _not_ investigate. Of course, that ended with some winged guy dropping him in a lake. And then him having to be rescued and chastised by Iron Man. Not exactly the evening he had planned.

But when Mr. Stark mentioned that he had put a bunch of stuff into his suit, he had a moment of inspiration and asked for a voice filter.

“What exactly do you want a voice filter for?”

He wondered whether his actual reason wasn’t good enough, but couldn’t figure out any better reason, so he went with the truth. “Well, the other day I ran into some guy from my school while in the suit, and was kinda forced to talk with him for a bit, and I tried to disguise my voice so he wouldn’t figure it out, but it’s still a bit risky I think, so if I could have some sort of filter for my voice, maybe make it a little deeper, just in case something like that happens again?” He omitted the tiny detail that he was, in fact, planning for it to happen again that very evening.

After a moment of contemplation, Mr. Stark seemed to agree with his reasoning. He activated a voice filter for Peter’s suit, chastised him a bit more, then disconnected as the suit flew away. Peter sat there for a minute, frustrated at being treated like a child, before jumping down from the climbing dome and testing the new filter. It sounded good, not too different from what he had tried when talking to Flash, and different enough from his own voice that it wouldn’t be noticeable for people who didn’t already know.

“Perfect”, he said to himself, as he started on his way back towards the party.

* * *

“Oh my god, look!”

“Is that –?”

“No _way_!”

He could hear their murmurs and exclamations as he swung nearer and nearer, finally landing by the open back door of the house in which the party was still in full swing. Or, it had currently gone to a stop as everyone had been notified of his presence and was currently staring at him. He put up his hand and gave a small wave and an “Uh… hi?”

They kept staring. “Um… Is this Liz’ house? I hope I didn’t find the wrong party, that’d be awkward!” He gave a little laugh, endlessly thankful for not having to put on a voice as well. “Do you guys know Peter? Parker? He said there was a party here and invited me to come? I’m sorry I’m late, I had some crime to stop on the way.” Okay, this was turning into rambling.

“Oh. My. God.” Peter, eternally grateful for someone other than him finally breaking the silence, turned towards Betty just as she squealed and ran over to him. “You’re Spider-Man! Oh my god!”

As if on cue, everyone started swarming him all at once, shouting towards him, trying to touch him, and he was being dragged into the house, trying to greet everyone, and he realized that this probably wasn’t such a good idea after all. A group of people emerged from the kitchen to investigate what was going on, Liz among them. She froze as she noticed him, the glass in her hand dropping to the floor and shattering. The noise drew the attention of large parts of the crowd, the chatter dying down slightly. Peter was trying to think of something to say to her, when someone came into his line of vision, calling his attention.

“Uh, Spider-Man? Hi,” Flash started. “Do you actually know Peter? Like he didn’t just pay you to come here, you legit know him?”

Peter stopped himself from rolling his eyes and focused on seeming confused. “What do you mean? Yeah, I know him, he’s an intern at Stark Industries. Wait, I recognize you, you’re that guy with the stream, right? Flash?”

Flash looked about to faint at being recognized by Spider-Man, but managed to stutter out a “Yeah, yeah, that’s me!”

“I didn’t realize you and Peter knew each other! Small world, huh? I don’t see him here, though, where is he?”

Ned, who had been standing by the wall up until that point, raised his hand. “Mr. Spider-Man? Hi, I’m Ned, I’m a friend of Peter, real pleasure to meet you, you’re so awesome! Uh, sorry, but Spi- uh, Peter left a while ago, he said he didn’t feel well.”

No-one seemed to bat an eye at Ned’s little slip-up, probably chalking it up to nervousness rather than anything else. _Luckily_ , Peter thought.

“Oh, that’s a shame… Well, at least I have you guys here, right? If you know Peter, then you’ve got to be cool!” He saw a few people looking a bit uneasy at that, as well as Flash looking like he’d been punched in the face, but he pretended not to notice. “So! I’m gonna feel incredibly rude if I don’t get to greet the host of this great party, is Liz here?”

She hadn’t stopped staring at him since she first saw him, something Peter had definitely noticed, but he tried looking at anyone but her as he waited for an answer. Someone nudged her, shaking her back to reality, and she managed to find her voice.

“H- hi, I’m – I’m Liz, that’s me, hi,” she stammered, taking a step towards him without taking her eyes off him. Which turned out to be a mistake, as she slipped on the puddle from her broken glass. Peter acted on instinct, taking a leap towards her and catching her just before a particularly sharp shard would’ve stabbed into her thigh. No one moved.

“Nice to meet you, Liz,” he said, maybe a bit too softly. She was looking at him with those beautiful brown eyes, widened in surprise, her arms were around his neck, and he was holding her as if they had been dancing and paused mid-dip, and he suddenly became very aware of everyone staring at them, and he quickly let her back up and cleared his throat. “We should probably try to get that cleaned up. You didn’t get cut, did you?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m all right,” she answered breathlessly, “thank you.” She smiled at him, a small, tentative smile, but still shining like starlight, making his heart flutter. They were still looking at each other, everyone else still quiet. Liz started a little as she seemed to become aware of her surroundings, and she gave a nervous chuckle before mumbling something about getting a mop and half-hurriedly leaving to get the mess cleaned up.

Peter was thinking about what to say next to break the awkward tension in the room, when, luckily again, someone else spoke up.

“Spider-Man!” Abe half-shouted as he maneuvered through the crowd to face him. “Can you stick to walls?”

Peter half-laughed at the unexpected question. “Yeah, I can. I can stick to ceilings too. Want me to demonstrate?”

Everyone nodded their agreements, excitedly whispering among each other and clearing space by a wall. He walked towards the wall, and instead of climbing it as he’d usually do, he decided on a bit of a comedic effect by keeping on walking normally, except on a ninety-degree angle. Everyone reacted with small gasps and laughter, as he had been aiming for. He then went onto the ceiling, walking upside down and high-fiving people as he walked past them.

People were still whispering to each other, some wondering what else he could do, some daring each other to ask him about specific things. He heard Betty and Cindy on the other side of the room whispering about how he and Liz had looked together. 

“I mean,” Cindy was saying, “it’s hard to say with the mask and all but they definitely had a moment there, right?”

“Yeah, absolutely!” Betty whispered back. “And we already know Liz has a crush on him. Imagine if they ended up dating!”

They giggled, before Betty continued. “Oh my god! Should we… should we tell him? About Liz’ crush?”

They giggled again, but Betty quickly backed down from her previous thought. “We really shouldn’t tell him. Imagine Liz’ embarrassment!”

“Imagine if they did date, though!”

As Peter dropped back down from the ceiling and cleared his throat, Betty, Cindy and the others who had been whispering quieted down again.

“Do you want to know another fun fact about my powers?” he asked the room. Everyone nodded enthusiastically. A few people answered with a “yes”. He saw Liz had returned to the crowd, having cleaned up the broken glass.

“Well,” he started, blushing a little under the mask. “I have enhanced hearing. I could hear most of what you were all whispering about.”

Realization dawned on everyone’s faces. Betty and Cindy were blushing and looking at each other. Instead of addressing them he turned towards Charles, who had been whispering to Jason.

“You wanted to know how much I can lift?” While Charles was nodding, he continued. “I don’t know exactly, but this one time this, like, airport bridge was dropped on me? And it was super heavy, but I was able to hold it up and wasn’t crushed, and I googled it later and figured it was maybe 30 tons? But that’s pretty close to my limit.”

There was a kind of rustling sound in the room as almost everyone took a sharp intake of breath. Peter looked around, wondering what had happened, but just saw everyone staring wide-eyed at him. “What’s… wrong?” he asked tentatively.

“You–” Ned croaked. “Someone dropped _thirty tons_ on you?”

“Oh.” He brought his hand up to rub his neck. “Yeah? I mean, Cap is really strategic, so I’m sure he made some calculations that it would stop me without killing me–”

“Wait,” Betty spoke up. “Cap? As in _Captain America_?”

Oops. “…yeah?” Peter tried to think a way to change the subject, but figured they wouldn’t have it. “Have you guys heard how he’s kind of a fugitive now? Well, there was this disagreement between him and Iron Man, and it ended up with a bunch of superheroes fighting each other in an airport in Germany. It was pretty cool to meet all those guys, but also kinda hard to make small talk while fighting them, so I didn’t really figure out a lot about what was going on.”

A few seconds passed before Charles broke the silence. “That is _so_ _cool_.”

Some people laughed, and the tension dissipated. “I guess we’re moving on then,” Peter continued. “I couldn’t really see who said what for the most part, but I heard someone wondering about my age.” He looked around to see if someone would claim the question, but when no-one did, he continued. “Well, I don’t want to give out my exact age, for privacy reasons, but I can tell you that I’m still in high school.” He saw Charles open his mouth to say something and continued, “No, I will definitely not say which high school.” More people laughed as Charles closed his mouth again.

“Hey, Spider-Man?” Peter heard from the side, turning to see Michelle, leaning up against the wall. “What’s up with your webs? Do you produce them naturally, or did you come up with them as part of the whole spider theme? And also, what’s with the spider theme?”

He was a bit fascinated with the way she only seemed half interested in what was going on, even as he answered. “Well, long story short, I was bitten by a radioactive spider and it gave me some spider powers. Like my strength is kinda proportionate to a spider’s strength, and I’m sticky, so I can climb walls and stuff. But yeah, the webs are artificially created and… I guess, just part of the spider theme, as you say.”

Michelle nodded, seemingly happy with his answer. It went on a little like that, with people asking him questions about his suit, things they had seen about him online, specific crimes he has stopped, and some trying to lure in questions about his personal life. He ended up just saying “That’s classified” whenever someone tried that, and they had some laughs when people came up with more and more ludicrous questions and him continuously answering the same way. Abe asked him if he was Tony Stark’s secret son, and he pretended to get flustered by it, actually fooling some people into thinking it was correct before breaking.

After a while, when everyone had gotten to ask their questions, the party slowly started getting somewhat back to normal. People broke back off into smaller groups, the music went back on, and Peter ended up just hanging out with everyone. He’d sit down with some people, chat a bit, pose with them for selfies, and wander off, being waved over by the next group. At one point he posed for a selfie with Ned, looking forward to laughing about it in private.

Eventually he found himself with a small group consisting of Liz, Betty and Cindy, hoping they wouldn’t bring up what he had heard them say earlier. Liz had gotten over her initial shock and no longer seemed flustered, and they were chatting normally when she turned towards him.

“Hey, could I ask you a question?”

He furrowed his brows a little in confusion, before remembering she couldn’t see that. “Uh, yeah, of course, what’s up?”

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m thrilled that you chose to come to my party, and even more that you’ve stayed.” She paused, apparently trying and failing to figure out how to ask her question.

“Are you wondering why I’m at a party instead of out fighting crime?” Peter suggested.

She smiled, a little guiltily. “Well, yeah.”

He smiled back, even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “Don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything.” She seemed to relax a little at that, and he continued, “Basically, I’ve clocked out for the night. I did do a bit of crime fighting on my way over here, that was why I was late, after all, but it turned out kind of crazy and some guy with mechanical wings ended up dropping me in a lake, so I figured I had my fill of adrenaline for tonight. I like hanging out with people too, you know? This thing we’re doing now, chatting, taking selfies, it’s a nice bonus to the whole superhero thing.”

“Wait, rewind,” Liz suddenly said. “Some guy dropped you in a lake?”

“Oh. Yeah.” He looked towards Cindy and Betty, and they too looked taken aback at what he had just casually mentioned. “Things like that happen sometimes, I guess? I mean, today was the first time I’ve been dropped in a lake, but it does happen once in a while that I’m up against people who are fighting to kill. It’s kinda part of the life, so I get used to the idea, I guess?”

They looked even more worried at his explanation, so he hurriedly added, “I mean, I’m not saying people try to kill me _all_ the time, just that it’s to be expected once in a while…?” He trailed off, realizing that he couldn’t really explain it in a way that would make them any less worried. And, he thought, it was kind of nice that they weren’t embarrassed to show that they cared.

They sat in silence for a moment before Liz spoke up again. “Does anyone know?”

He tensed. “What do you mean?”

“Have you told any of your friends or family?” She furrowed her brows a bit. “You don’t have to answer that. I guess I just can’t help thinking of how if it does go wrong one day, and they wouldn’t know what happened…”

Peter looked down at his lap, fidgeting with his hands. “I know. But people knowing could also put them in danger.” He looked up at her. “I’ve never told anyone.”

She gave him a small smile and put her hand on his arm. Betty and Cindy shared a look, and Peter was prepared to ignore it, but Liz noticed as well. “What are you two scheming over?” The slightly sinister tension was replaced with a more light-hearted tension.

“Uh…” Betty started, shooting Peter a look.

“We weren’t–” Cindy tried, but didn’t go on.

Peter decided they had squirmed enough and figured being blunt might work as well as anything else. “They were gossiping earlier, before they realized I have super-hearing and could hear everything they said.”

Liz gave them an exasperated look. “What were you talking about?” They both blushed and looked at Peter.

He sighed. “Well, among other things, they did mention you having a crush on me.”

She took a deep breath and looked anywhere but right at him. “Oh. Right.” She turned towards him, face apologetic. “Sorry, I just– it’s just this silly little, like, celebrity crush, you know? And I’ve seen videos of you on YouTube and I just…” She trailed off, blushing furiously, and put her hands on her cheeks.

Peter laughed lightly. “Hey, it’s okay, Liz. It’s, uh… it’s flattering.” _Especially coming from you_ , he didn’t add. “I mean, it’s cool to be recognized as a crush-worthy superhero. Guys like Thor and Captain America usually get most of that attention, so now I feel like I’ve really made it!”

They all laughed, and just like that, the tension was gone.

He kept chatting with the three girls a little while longer, although the themes were a bit lighter than death and romance. They then took some selfies before he got back up to wander again. He saw Flash sitting aside from everyone and looking conflicted, and he knew exactly why, but he also knew he wasn’t supposed to know why, and now Flash had noticed him faced in his direction, and he figured he didn’t really have a choice in the matter, so he went over to him and sat down.

“What’s up, Flash?” he started, in a light tone. “You’re looking a little out of it there.”

“Yeah, I just…” He looked down and was silent for a moment. “I guess I’m just surprised that you’re actually here. I didn’t think Peter would actually invite you.”

Peter chuckled a little, and realized he could add a little detail from the story he and Ned had planned out. “Yeah, I get that. I mean, when Peter invited me here, I’m pretty sure he didn’t really expect me to show up.”

Flash looked back up at him. “How well do you and Peter know each other?”

Still keeping to the practiced story, he answered with ease. “Well, we see each other around. We’ve chatted a bit. I wouldn’t say he knows me much better than the rest of you do now, as I keep my privacy over at the Tower too, but yeah, he’s a cool guy.”

“Right. Yeah. Yeah, he’s- he’s cool.”

He decided to give him one more chance to tell the truth. “What’s really going on, Flash? You still seem a bit put out.”

He could practically see the wheels in Flash’s head whirring around, trying to figure out whether to tell him or not. “It’s…” His eyes shifted to the side before he looked back down. “Forget it, it’s stupid.”

“Hey,” He put his hand on Flash’s shoulder. “I’m not your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for nothing. I hear stupid stuff all the time, and it’s usually not really that stupid.”

“Well, okay, I…” He took a deep breath. “It’s just that, earlier this week, after I met you, I went to school the next day, and everyone went up to me to talk about you, and it was really cool, you know? I mean, I’m pretty popular to begin with, but it was pretty nice to be the center of attention like that, and now it’s not really that big of a deal, because everyone who was here tonight have met you too.”

Oh. That wasn’t what Peter had expected him to say. He briefly wondered whether Flash had made it up to avoid talking about the bullying, but quickly abandoned that thought. It seemed real.

Even as Peter tried thinking of something to say, Flash continued. “I know this makes me sound like such a dick, like I was using you for glory at my school, but I guess I’m just gonna miss that attention. It was just nice, is all.”

Flash was looking at him, and Peter realized a couple seconds had passed since he had stopped talking. “I don’t think that makes you a dick, Flash,” he said, in what he hoped was a reassuring voice. “I get it. I mean, I sure get my share of positive attention, just look at… this!” He gestured vaguely to the rest of the party.

Flash gave a kind of nod and a sound that Peter interpreted as ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right’. Peter continued. “Also, I used to be a regular teenager before the spider-thing happened. And believe me, if I had met Thor or something back then, I would definitely be boasting my ass off about it!”

Flash smiled at him, making him feel a bit uncomfortable. “You’re way cooler than Thor, though.”

“ _What?_ ” He put his hand to his chest. “I don’t know whether to feel flattered or affronted!”

They both laughed, before Peter returned to a more serious tone of voice. “Seriously, though. I’m sure your friends won’t stop liking you just because _I’m_ not that special…” He ran through what he had just said in his head, and added, “You know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah, of course. Thanks!”

“No problem, my dude,” he lightly smacked his hand on Flash’s knee as he got up and ventured back into the crowd. It felt incredibly weird to be talking to Flash that way. Really, it felt weird to be in the same room as Flash without being insulted somehow. But the short conversation they just had gave Peter an idea, and he wondered whether it would be doable. Archiving that thought, he walked towards another group that had just waved him over, and continued his thing for the night.

Eventually, it was time for Spider-Man to bid his adieus. The crowd gathered again, some people came up to him for last minute selfies, and he made sure to thank Liz for being a great host. In a moment of confidence, he told her “Maybe I’ll see you around, Liz,” and accented it with a wink. She blushed, and someone wolf whistled. At that, he gave a casual salute and left, jumping onto the garage. He made sure he was out of sight as he bundled up the clothes he left up there hours ago, and then he swung away.

Well, the first half of the night didn’t really go as planned, but the other half honestly went beyond all expectations. Even though he felt way more exhausted than he usually did after a fight, he went to bed with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the weight thing, I googled and found a lot of different answers to the question “How much can Spider-Man lift”, but I went with something from a video with a lot of analyzing and stuff (the video is called “How Strong is Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War?” and is by the channel Gubz if you wanna check it out) but that’s what I took it from anyway. I also saw somewhere that Spider-Man’s strength class used to be 10 tonnes but is now 25 tonnes, so 30 tonnes being strenuous to him made sense to me.
> 
> Also, about the relationship to Liz: I don’t yet know where I’ll be going with this fic, but as of now the ending will probably be the same in the end with her moving away. I’m hoping to continue the fic past Homecoming, or possibly make a one-shot or two where we can maybe shine a light on his growing friendship with and feelings for MJ. Just in case someone reads this hoping for Liz/Peter endgame, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I will definitely try my hand at some cute scenes between them at least. Peter crushing on someone is adorable no matter who is the object of his affection, at least in my opinion!


End file.
